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Dogecoin hits new high after Elon Musk and Snoop Dogg tweets

Snoop Dogg arrives at the InStyle and Warner Bros. Golden Globes afterparty at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Snoop Dogg arrives at the InStyle and Warner Bros. Golden Globes afterparty at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, January 5, 2020, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Photo: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

Cryptocurrency dogecoin (DOGE-USD) hit a new all-time high on Sunday night, as celebrity attention continues to buoy up the price of the joke token.

Dogecoin reached a peak of $0.0844 on Sunday evening before falling back. The cryptocurrency was up 19% on Monday morning in London to trade at $0.0704.

Dogecoin’s new all-time high on Sunday coincided with renewed celebrity attention. On Saturday, rapper Snoop Dogg tweeted a picture of one of his album covers with his face replaced with the dogecoin Shiba Inu dog and the caption: “Snoop Doge.” He tagged Elon Musk in the post. The Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX founder’s recent tweets about the cryptocurrency have sent its price soaring.

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Watch: What are the risks of investing in cryptocurrency?

Musk responded with a series of tweets referencing dogecoin and a link to a video about it.

Sunday’s price surge briefly pushed the market value of dogecoin above $10bn. The cryptocurrency, which was created in 2013 as a joke, was still worth just over $9bn by Monday morning making it the 10th most valuable cryptocurrency in circulation by market capitalisation.

The price of dogecoin has surged in recent weeks after Tesla and SpaceX founder Musk began tweeting about it. The rise has coincided with a surge of populism in financial markets around the world.

The price of dogecoin has surged in recent weeks after Elon Musk began tweeting about it. Photo: Yahoo Finance UK
The price of dogecoin has surged in recent weeks after Elon Musk began tweeting about it. Photo: Yahoo Finance UK

Musk has publicly said his jocular endorsements of dogecoin are meant as a joke but his tweets have helped to raise the profile of the cryptocurrency, which had largely faded from view until he drew attention to it.

Musk’s spotlight has attracted other musicians as well as Snoop Dogg. Gene Simmons, the bassist and singer of rock band KISS, has been tweeting frequently about dogecoin in recent weeks. Last week Simmons said he had “bought a big position in Dogecoin.”

Dogecoin was created in 2013 largely as a joke parodying bitcoin. The decentralized cryptocurrency, which can be used for payments, takes its name from a meme picture of a Shiba Inu dog that went viral in the year it was created.

Watch: What is bitcoin?